Reds facing Leeds ejection

MANCHESTER United fans who have acquired tickets for the away section at Elland Road for Saturday's noon showdown with Leeds won't be relocated in the Reds' end if they are identified as away supporters.

MANCHESTER United fans who have acquired tickets for the away section at Elland Road for Saturday's noon showdown with Leeds won't be relocated in the Reds' end if they are identified as away supporters.

Normal procedure by the Yorkshire club is to safely escort travelling supporters, who've infiltrated the Leeds sections, into the safety of their own away end.

However, with United's allocation for the Premiership fixture slashed to 1,600 from 3,000 because of crowd trouble in previous encounters there will not be any room to accommodate any extras in the 40,235 capacity ground.

Leeds normally sell out their own tickets for this cross-Pennine fixture against the bitter Roses rivals.

However, the decline of Peter Reid's side's fortunes and poor form this term has dampened enthusiasm in Yorkshire and a number of tickets are still available.

The club blundered by putting tickets on open sale and it is believed that United fans, who were unsuccessful in Old Trafford's ballot for tickets in the visitors' enclosure, have been able to get their hands on seats in Leeds sections.

Despite this error being exposed there are still just over a hundred tickets for the match in the Family Stand on open sale at Elland Road.

Ticket Office manager Doug Smith told M.E.N. Sport: "When we sell a ticket we check to see if the buyer has a customer number with us.

"Any person who has booked through us before will have a customer number. If they haven't and they are from outside of the Leeds area then there will be some searching question to find out where they are from. We'll be continuing with those checks.

"In the past identified away fans in a home section would have been taken to the away enclosure if they'd got into the ground.

"But against Manchester United there won't be any extra seats to do this so any United fan who is discovered in a Leeds section will be ejected from the stadium."

Last season's match ended with running battles between rival supporters that went on for more than 90 minutes after the final whistle.

Coaches carrying Manchester United fans were ambushed and had their windows smashed by missiles, while innocent Leeds fans were punched as they left the South Stand.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: "This match will be resourced appropriately and there will be sufficient officers on duty to deal with any threat of disorder."